As September slips into October, many native wildflowers and grasses that bloomed with the summer monsoon rains begin to go to seed. Offering a veritable bounty of food choices, this avian smorgasbord happens just as a number of migratory seed-eating birds such as sparrows and juncos are returning to our area to spend all or part of the winter. In mountain canyons and desert arroyos, along ditch banks and streams, and in floodplains and fallow fields, these pockets of habitat occur across the region and can sustain a wide diversity of bird species through fall and winter.

Hikers enjoying trails in the Organ Mountains, such as Dripping Springs, Fillmore Canyon and Aguirre Spring, will likely encounter the glistening, feathery tassels that bear the seeds of Apache plume, a widespread native shrub. Easy to grow in area landscapes, its avid bird patrons include many sparrow species as well as lesser goldfinches. Four-wing saltbush is another conspicuous shrub, found in desert washes and along field edges. Occasionally available in the nursery trade, its papery seeds are especially popular with quail, finches, towhees and sparrows.

Green rabbitbrush or chamisa, with its eye-popping late summer display of golden yellow flowers that attract hordes of butterflies, decorates large swaths of the Rio Grande floodplain. Its copious seeds are a favorite food of chipping, Brewer’s, clay-colored, lark, and white-crowned sparrows. Another low shrub, found in most desert habitats, is snakeweed. The seeds follow the sunny yellow flowers, and are eagerly taken by Gambel’s quail and other birds.

Marcy Scott is a local birder, and author of the recently published book, "Hummingbird Plants of ...more

Marcy Scott is a local birder, and author of the recently published book, "Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest."

Courtesy of Jimmy Zabriskie

Virtually all of the native clumping grasses are beneficial to birds and other wildlife, in productive years providing seed through the winter season. Some of the most popular with a variety of sparrows, juncos, towhees, buntings and doves include Indian rice grass, sand dropseed, alkali and giant sacaton, bull grass, bush muhly, silver beardgrass, sideoats and blue grama, purple three-awn, switchgrass and little bluestem.

Grassy habitats in the lower elevations of the Organ Mountains, ditch banks below the Las Cruces Dam, and the floodplain and adjacent areas at the Mesilla Valley Bosque are often good places to look for mixed flocks of sparrows. In years of ample summer rainfall and lush vegetation, one might find black-throated, chipping, Brewer’s, clay-colored, vesper, lark, Lincoln’s, and white-crowned sparrows, along with dark-eyed juncos, lark buntings, and spotted and green-tailed towhees, feasting on various grass seeds. Note that most of these clumping grasses are quite attractive and well worth considering for the home landscape.

Those of us that offer birdseed in feeders know that sunflower seed is at the very top of the list of preferred bird foods, and the same is true of our native sunflowers, annual and Maximilian’s sunflowers. In addition to all of the sparrows, towhees, juncos, finches, quail, and doves already mentioned, these super-wildflowers also beckon pyrrhuloxias, painted and lazuli buntings, and orioles. One winter a nearby neighbor’s fallow field, allowed to proliferate in annual sunflowers, attracted the attention of a streak-backed oriole, an ultra-rare bird from Mexico that came for a drink at our birdbath and became only the second documented record of the species in New Mexico.

Chocolate flower is another extremely popular and widespread wildflower, especially coveted by lesser goldfinches and Inca doves. Their cocoa-scented, daisy-like flowers bloom and go-to seed nearly year-round, so provide food over a long time period. Other daisies, asters and virtually any of the zinnias, whether native or garden-grown, produce seed that is favored by quail, finches and many sparrow species. And the many different kinds of thistles, perhaps best left to wild places, have flowers that are magnets for butterflies and hummingbirds, followed by seeds that are eagerly snapped up by finches and sparrows. Desert breezes tend to waft away any persistent seeds fairly quickly, however, so they aren’t available long.

Marcy Scott is a local birder, botanizer, and author of "Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest." Along with her husband, Jimmy Zabriskie, she operates Robledo Vista Nursery in the North Valley, www.robledovista.com, specializing in native and adapted plants for birds and wildlife habitat. She can be reached at HummingbirdPlantsSW@gmail.com.